#420 Barefoot Dogs- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

#420 Barefoot Dogs- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

This is the title story of this collection. As in most of them, it’s about a wealthy family fleeing the violence in Mexico City. They have a newborn child and the father is up early taking care of the baby, reluctantly and resentfully.

“I take the baby out and feel him looking at me. I avoid his eyes. He is an exact replica of me. It gives me the creeps.”

He’s ashamed that he has fled ashamed of what has become of him family. “What a horrible and pathetic father. How immature, how useless and cowardly. I imagine her asking herself why she’s still with me and what’s keeping her from leaving, from meeting someone else, a real man. Someone like my father.”

His father has been kidnapped, and as he continues to move his family away from danger, the kidnappers send parts of his father they have cut off, in boxes to him. The violence that follows then is no joke.

As this collection finishes, I am left feeling a little confused. I’m not exactly sure how I’m supposed to feel. I can’t say that anyone in these stories deserves the violence that befell them, but they aren’t painted in a great light either. They are wealthy, privileged, sheltered and out of touch with reality.

I guess this story is a microcosm of it all. If you focus on the father-son story lines, on a human level, you can sympathize. But on the other hand, we see a man who has fled mexico, his father is being cut up into small pieces and his thoughts are about gow embarrassing it would be to rent an apartment already furnished; or how he could furnish it himself by buying the whole furniture store, but he wouldn’t because it was all too cheap for his taste. So, again, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel about characters I have no connection with.

Rating: 7-7-6-6 Total= 26

#393 Her Odor First- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

#393 Her Odor First- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

Death, family, regret, love. This is a sort of elegy. A spirit lingers in her house. He grandson, “her baby” is the last one left in the house. He is left to take care of her affairs, and he must sift through the boxes she left behind. She is still hanging on to the life she had, and wants to reach out and comfort him, but she can’t.

“My baby senses me as I’m coming out of the closet and he looks around, chasing my presence. He knows I’m here, we remain connected. But I can’t meet his cornered-bull eyes. I can’t touch his sagging face. From this distance forced upon us by my fate, I can’t sooth him. I can’t caress his reddened cheeks and bring relief to his expression, wet, drunk, full of angst. I’ve never seen my baby like this before, and for once I’m glad he can’t see me either.”

Rating: 7-7-8-7 Total= 29

#372 Better Latitude- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

#372 Better Latitude- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

A single mother is raising her child and trying to make sense of his father’s disappearance. The whole story is written like a letter that will never be sent. Laureano, used to his father’s sparse company, only believes his father has taken a long trip and will soon come back. His mother knows better, although she herself is in some denial:

“I realized you had a capacity for disposing of people like they were ziplock bags, but I considered this trait of yours the same way I did tragedy or bad luck, only affecting other people, never myself.”

There is something both noble and tragic about this delusional mother, hanging on to any thread of hope, her son in a state of suspended emotional development. The end will not be good, no matter how hard she works as a mother, something is missing. Maybe it’s not just his father, maybe the missing truth is more damaging.

Rating: 7-7-8-8 Total= 30

#359 Deer- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

#359 Deer- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

Conchita and Susy work at McDonalds. Today, when they showed up for work, the place was surrounded by a police line and a crowd of people. Conchita tells Susy that there is a bear inside, and they can’t get it out.

While they are waiting, and the police are preparing, and the protestors try to save the bear, we learn a little about these two woman, Susy only in this country a year, and Conchita here a bit longer just lost her son. There is a little theme about not having control over your life, things just being the way they are. But, other than that, this is juts about a bear stuck in a McDonalds.

Rating: 6-6-5-5 Total= 22

# 329 I Clench My Hands Into Fists and They Look Like Someone Else’s- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

# 329 I Clench My Hands Into Fists and They Look Like Someone Else’s- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

Homero and Ximena are siblings. They are Mexican teenagers stuck in New York City awaiting word from their parents. If there is a theme running through this collection, it is kids from a wealthy family fleeing the violence of Mexico City. They worry about the fate of their Grandfather and what the future holds for their family.

The whole story is written in dialogue, which makes it a challenge to figure out the context and setting, but it’s a fun challenge, kind of like a puzzle. The conversations run from normal brother-sister talk to the shadow looming over their whole sketchy situation. Being uprooted from their homes and separated from their parents, sometimes the best things to talk about are the normal things.

Rating: 7-7-8-7 Total= 29

#308 Oragami Prunes- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

#308 Oragami Prunes- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

This story was kind of all over the place for me. Two displaced wealthy Mexicans meet in Laundromat in Austin. She is older and cynical, he is young and naïve. They have a torrid lost-weekend and then part ways never to met again. There is some symbolism attached to wild fires, tumbling inside of dryers, and Michael Jackson’s death, but it’s not apparent to me what they mean.

That said, it wasn’t without some entertainment. It had a few good lines. The first is probably my favorite first line in the 300 stories I’ve covered in this blog:

“I first met Laura at a washateria the day both my washer and Michael Jackson died.”

And then it also had probably the creepiest line I’ve read in the 300 stories covered in this blog:

“Laura’s helplessness was wrapped in a thin layer of arrogance that made her sexy and unnerving, a thing you wanted to put your hands on.”

So, there’s that.

Notable Passage: “Nostalgia is the saddest form of glee.”

Rating: 7-6-5-6 Total= 24